RENCI makes an impact at fall AGU meeting

Published: December 14, 2017

Chris Lenhardt (left), and Howard Lander with their poster at the AGU fall meeting.

Why was New Orleans inundated with scientists during the week of December 11 – 15? They were in the Big Easy for the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a conference that attracts about 24,000 Earth and geoscientists from across the nation and around the globe.

As researchers in the Earth and geosciences incorporate more data from sensors and other sources into their work, RENCI’s expertise in cyberinfrastructure to manage data throughout its lifecycle takes on more importance in this community. As a result, RENCI was well represented at the AGU meeting in several poster sessions held throughout the week.

Chris Lenhardt, a data scientist in the Earth Data Science Group, and Howard Lander, senior research software developer, presented a poster on RENCI’s Cross-Disciplinary Data Cyberinfrastructure (xDCI) as part of a conference session on Earth and space science cyberinfrastructures. xDCI is a complete and customizable solution for scientific communities looking to use data cyberinfrastructure to kick start their research and accelerate the discovery process. It merges successful data cyberinfrastructure development efforts so that research teams can build customized, complex infrastructure that enables discovery.

Flood inundation modeling using high-resolution LIDAR data, with Lenhardt, Blanton, and Lisa Stillwell, senior research software developer, among the co-authors.

Building cyberinfrastructure to understand and mitigate the impacts of natural disasters, using 2017’s Hurricane Maria as a test case, with Idaszak and Lenhardt among the co-authors.

Lenhardt and Lander also participate in the AGU’s Earth and Space Sciences Informatics Focus Group, which addresses issues related to data management and analysis, modeling, and hardware and software needs to support Earth and space science.

About RENCI

RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute) develops and deploys advanced technologies to enable research discoveries and practical innovations. RENCI partners with researchers, government, and industry to engage and solve the problems that affect North Carolina, our nation, and the world. An institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, RENCI was launched in 2004 as a collaboration involving UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University.